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Could this Rain Be the Start of a Rainy Winter?

by Jim Forsyth

The rain is expected to continue in San Antonio through Wednesday, but a new long term projection from the private weather firm AccuWeather indicates that it could be the start of a rainy winter which could make a big dent in our drought, 1200 WOAI news reports.

"I do think we have good opportunities here to see precipitation right through the winter season,"meterologist Paul Pastelock of the State College Pennsylvania based firm said.

The San Antonio area and much of Texas are in the third year of a drought which has pushed down Edwards Aquifer and Highland Lakes levels to near record lows. The culmination of three years of drought has Austin officials floating the possibility of limits on the amount of water people can use inside their homes for drinking and showering.

Pastelock says right now, the long term forecast looks positive for a wet winter.

"We have forecast near to above normal precipitation for the region all the way through the winter season," he said. "There are going to be storms close by in a more frequent occurrence compared with last year and the year before that."

Pastelock says there are indications that a colder than normal winter is also in store for Texas, which would bring the possibility of the first ice storm since February of 2011 to San Antonio before the end of the winter.

The drought has placed much of the state in danger. Up until the rain started falling on Sunday, San Antonio only had received 16% of the normal rainfall for the first half of the month. October is traditionally one of the wettest months of the year. The Great Flood of 1998 took place during October.